Possessing one of the iconic voices of the ’60s folk world, Richie Havens held Woodstock spellbound with his soulful humanity as the festival’s first — however reluctant — performer.

His unique, rhythmic, acoustic guitar stylings and calls for unity and brotherhood sprung Havens from the Greenwich Village ’60s folk scene that nurtured his burgeoning talent and catapulted him into the national consciousness.

Born and bred in Brooklyn, N.Y., Havens actually started out in doo-wop,
singing with neighborhood friends on street corners, and, then, lending his voice to The McCrea Gospel Singers at age 16.

Lured to Greenwich Village four years later by the promise of freedom of expression, Havens found a place where he could grow artistically. Though he scratched out only a meager living doing portraits and playing gigs, Havens would hook up with famed manager Albert Grossman.

A record deal with the Verve label soon followed, and Havens made his mark with his stunning 1967 debut, Mixed Bag. Songs like “Handsome Johnny,” co-written by Havens and actor Louis Gossett Jr., and “Follow” would establish Havens as an artist worth watching. And his cover of “Just Like A Woman” earned him a reputation as a sublime interpreter of Bob Dylan’s work.

Havens was, and still is, prolific, recording five more albums by the time 1969 rolled around, with 1968’s Something Else Again becoming his first to crack the Billboard charts.

But it was his electrifying performance at Woodstock that made him a household name. Television appearances, acting work — he was in the original 1972 staging of The Who’s “Tommy” — and ecological education projects broadened his horizons. But, he’s continued recording over the years, and in 2008, he released a new album of timeless folk entreaties titled Nobody Left To Crown.

I read an interesting quote from you in which you said, “I’m not in show business; I’m in the communications business.” Is it harder to reach the audience you’re attempting to communicate with with all the technological advancements and hustle and bustle of modern living?

Richie Havens: To tell you the honest truth, it all works for me. It really does, yes.

When I said that — to put it into a certain context — we were talking about the music I was interested in before I went to Greenwich Village, and of course, that was doo-wop with all my friends. You know, singing on the street corner, and trying to get into The Apollo to the contest and all that stuff, and so to me, that was show business. And it is what it is.

Although, the music of our times, belonging to us, called rock ’n’ roll was not touted as much as it could have been as a social folk scene. But, we were trying to grow out of a certain non-voice situation into expanding the voice we had from rock ’n’ roll, the support we had. I mean, I tell people it was embarrassing in those days when you had to write a song called “No, no, no, I’m not a juvenile delinquent” (laughs). But, we had to sing stuff like that, and of course, the older guys were singing the other half of that — the dilemma was “bup, bup, bup, bup dum/ bang, bang, bang, bang … get a job” (laughs).

Every parent in the world was telling me kids do that at that point. But, you know, what comes out of it is that when I went to Greewich Village, the first six or seven songs that really captured me… it was a different kind of song. It was an all-inclusive song.

I wasn’t just talking about my friends in doo-wop, but here I am talking about the world and the people in it. And these songs really tu